[SCA-Dance] Maundering about "Glory of the West"

[White, John]

> From: Behalf Of Tim McDaniel
> 
> On Mon, 23 Aug 2010, Yves de Fortanier <Yves.de.Fortanier at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> > Bonjour from Yves,
> 
> Morning, squire!
> 
> > According to Filip's transcription of the First Edition,
> 
> <http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~flip/contrib/dance/playford.html>
> 
> > I'm thinking the open and close takes a bar/measure each and the
> > movement for "open" could be [1] branle out twice, [2] slip out
> > twice, or [3] "step, cross in front, step, pause"
> 
> Is [3] sometimes called a "grapevine bransle" step?  I think I've seen
> that done in a few other dances.
> 

Seems to be what he's saying, though I would resist this.  However, I did
say that "how one's feet accomplish this isn't vitally important" and I
meant it.  Counter-however, given the speed at which GotW is usually played,
bouncing is not something easily foregone ....

> > Setting to another dancer without turning - I count at least seven
> > dances having that, including Stingo and Newcastle.
> 
> I don't know those dances; thanks for pointing them out.  You mean
> that Playford specifies only setting and indeed they are danced with
> only setting?
> 

Yes - setting by itself is a valid move.  Doesn't mean it is always a valid
move, and doesn't mean that every time they say "set" they mean only "set" ...

> > Since there's two bars in which to do two sets, I see two options:
> > do it once at half speed or do it twice at normal speed. There is a
> > similar situation with "The Health": the instructions say simply
> > "set" and the music gives two bars for it.
> 
> Anyone know "The Health"?
> 

I've reconstructed it (http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~white/ECD/health.html ).
The Health would seem to have only one phrase, and it's a four measure phrase,
which means that my reconstruction is wrong in believing that the set is setting
alone (or that St Cecilia recorded a different version ...).

> I like two sets as an option.  Not aesthetically, but that it's
> consistent with Playford, fits the ECD pattern, fills the time
> available.  I think I did that in at least one ECD dance in a mundane
> [1] practice here in Austin.
> 

I do not see the aesthetics it stretching a step to fit the music.  The
omission of the "and turn" is clearly (to me, and perhaps to me alone) a better
method of fitting the step to the music than either repeating the step without
it being written (if neither is written, which unwritten "fix" is the better one?)
or slowing it to fill two measures.  

> Dannet de Lincoln
> 
> [1] word chosen advisedly
> 
> --
> Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com

          \\Dafydd Cyhoeddwr